The Other Presidential Debate

Third-Party Candidates Strike Back.

The arrest of Green Party candidate Jill Stein last week proves that America's presidential elections are a Coke-Pepsi affair.

Stein was arrested alongside her running-mate, Green party vice-presidential nominee, Cheri Jonkala. Their crime? Trying to get into the debate so Stein could participate – she is, after all, a presidential candidate who appears on the ballot for 85% of voters in America!

When she was released from jail (which was pretty much right after the debate ended), Stein told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now:

The police said they were only doing job [when they arrested us]. I said [to them], ‘This is about everyone's jobs, whether we can afford healthcare, whether students will be indentured.’ There are critical issues left out of the debate. Americans deserve to know what their choices are. . . Ninety million voters are predicted to stay home and vote with their feet that neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney represent them. That's twice as many voters than expected for either of them.

Even if they hadn't been arrested, third-party candidates are barred access to and participation in the presidential debates according to the strict mandates of the CPD (Commission on Presidential Debates), a private corporation which was created by the Democrat and Republican parties in 1980s. The CPD is almost entirely prohibitive of third-party candidates, so the Democrats and Republicans together control the debates (rigged, anyone?) and bar the public access to alternative views. Hey! CPD also stands for Coke-Pepsi Debates....coincidence?

But there are three coups, at least, coming out of all this:

Solid proof that America makes a mockery of democracy.

Jill Stein is suing the CPD for depriving her of her constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and free speech, as well as her statutorily protected civil rights. That's a hell of a case!

Third-Party candidates strike back!

Despite having their platforms silenced, if not sabotaged, by the elitist Coke-Pepsi system, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson will debate tonight in a unique streaming debate moderated by Larry King and broadcasted live online.

Larry King, who retired from CNN last year, stated in a press release for the event that he is very excited about this opportunity: “I have interviewed every US President since Nixon, and lest people forget, I helped usher Ross Perot into the national conversation during the 1992 presidential contest. I appreciate the importance of providing a platform to those with real alternative visions for our country’s future.”

And here's Jill Stein's vision for America: We support a Green New Deal, which will put everyone back to work, at the same time that it puts a halt to climate change and it makes wars for oil obsolete."